BUENOS AIRES/SALTA — On a 4,000-meter plateau in Argentina's Salta province on the 19th local time, a barren desert stretches across land reached only after a journey from Incheon requiring four connecting flights. The site is called Hombre Muerto — Spanish for "dead man" — a salt lake where lithium-bearing brine rises from underground. As the name suggests, beneath the parched earth where not a single blade of grass grows lay the "white oil" that will power future industries.
POSCO Holdings (005490.KS) bought the mining rights to this wasteland in 2018 and has built the business by concentrating lithium in artificial ponds. Including Hombre Muerto North, additionally secured this year, the salt lakes cover a total of 287 square kilometers, 99 times the size of Seoul's Yeouido district. More than $2.7 billion, or about 3.7 trillion won, has been invested in acquiring the mining rights and building the first and second local plants. After enduring years of losses while continuing to invest, the company posted its first operating profit of 11 billion won in the second quarter of this year, eight years after entering the market. Park Hyun, head of POSCO Argentina, said the second-half results would improve further, as the ramp-up — the process of raising output toward target levels — has been completed and the deep midwinter cold is easing.
The move is also expected to boost the "Triple Core Vision" of POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa, which centers on industrial, strategic and energy resources. The company will begin early construction of its third and fourth brine lithium plants in 2027 and 2030. If plans hold, POSCO will complete a system producing 173,000 tons a year by 2033 — combining brine lithium from Argentina with hard-rock lithium from Australia — to rise into the global top five lithium producers.
